10 Years of the Apple App Store: A Revolution for Small Businesses

This week marks the 10 Year Anniversary of the Apple App Store. With more than two million apps in the App Store, downloaded over 170 billion times, it’s hard to imagine a world without them.

It’s an exciting moment for us to reflect on at Invoice2go. For it was the launch of the App Store in 2008 that enabled Invoice2go to go mobile for the first time ever, completely changing how contractors, tradespeople and other business owners could invoice, and run their business on the go. Our founder Chris Strode was a visionary in many ways – not the least of which was immediately recognizing how revolutionary the App Store would be for small businesses, and how much opportunity awaited anyone with a smartphone in their hand.

Icon from Invoice2go’s early days in the Apple App Store

And small businesses have certainly caught on.

Today, 40% of the people using Invoice2go to run their business are doing so strictly from mobile devices.

While the top spots on the download charts are not surprisingly taken up by games, social media, and streamed entertainment like Netflix and Spotify, the world of apps have also created amazing opportunities for businesses of all sizes.

Just think, if you’re an entrepreneur, someone with an idea – here are some of the things you can do from your phone, all because of apps:

Take a business course (Bizversity)

Write a business plan (Business Plan for Startups)

Create your startup budget (Start-up Budget)

Raise funds to get your business off the ground (GoFundMe or Indiegogo)

Network with other business owners (Shapr)

And for those running businesses, I dare say you are operating much more productively from wherever your job takes you during the day. Invoice2go alone helps you:

Offer real-time customer service even when you’re away from the office (Messenger, Whatsapp, customer service apps like FastCustomer)

Follow the best route to your client appointments (and know exactly when you’ll get there based on current traffic) (Waze)

The list goes on and on

And that’s really just the beginning, for the App Store makes it possible to innovate like never before. It allows software developers like us to bring our customers the latest tools, solve new challenges, and release important updates seamlessly through the app. Before the App Store, you had to keep buying the latest software to stay up to date. Now, that software comes to you automatically, while you’re out running your business. Chris saw that opportunity, and the flexibility it would provide early on. That’s why Invoice2go was one of the first mobile-first apps for small businesses on the market.

Invoice2go in the App Store today

Today gives us a great chance to look back, and also to look ahead at the innovation that awaits any small business that’s embracing the world of mobile apps.

At Invoice2go, we’re focused on this opportunity every day. We’re working hard not only to make it even simpler to run a business from anywhere, but we’re also building intuitive new features that address the many common challenges small business owners face, so they can seize every opportunity that comes their way, grow, and be as successful as they want to be.